My Cocky Cowboy
A Steamy Older Man Romance
by
Mia Madison
Chapter One
Shea
“So when do these princesses arrive, Abe?”
A round of jeers and whoops circles the ring of guys at my question. The ranch foreman shrugs his shoulders from beneath his hat, hooked over his forehead to cover his face.
We're sitting around the fire-pit on hay bales and oil drums, anything we can muster. Out under the stars like we prefer. Rafe and I often sleep out here in the open. Rafe claims the sound of cattle grumbling helps him sleep. I just like the air and the big sky.
“You afraid of being alone in that big ol' bed all weekend?” Jessop, the kidder, prods me. “That why you asking about princesses?”
“He's only inquiring when we can expect to see some sweet young things wandering around the place,” Rafe puts in.
“Abel wasn't here last year when the scream queens came,” Quint mutters as he emerges from his forge, sweating and soot-blackened and crosses the yard, heading to his house.
Abel, the ranch foreman, shifts beneath his hat and crosses his arms tighter across his broad strapping chest. I recall him taking off to work on another ranch for a while. Before old man Foxworth went and asked him to come back.
“They'll be here tomorrow. Old Jock Foxworth and Chloe went into town to meet them at some shindig.”
“Those girls aren't gonna be any use for a booty call,” Rafe puts in. “Don't you remember last year, they came with their chaperone. Old biddy kept them locked up like beauty queen nuns.”
“Is your John Thomas about to fall off from lack of attention?” Jessop continues with the joshing.
“He gets plenty of that, don't you worry,” I butt back. “You on the other hand need to pop your cherry.”
A roar of laughter goes around our small band of brothers and the guys all talk at once, hurling jovial insults about the usual stuff. Getting laid mostly. It's where our thoughts tend to roam after a long day in the saddle. We're all exhausted, sore in a good way from roping steer and other manual labor. All we want is to come home to a cold brew and a warm curvy woman to welcome us into her willing arms.
Of course that second part doesn’t happen too regularly with us all being bachelors and the lack of women living out on the ranch. No wonder we're aroused about the arrival of the stampede queen and her two princesses. They'll stay a few days, do some promotional shit that gets the ranch noticed and wind it all up with the annual rodeo and cookout. Hell, I have to admit it'll be nice to get an eyeful of some feminine curves around here. It's been way too long for most of us. Me most of all.
“Let's head down to McDools,” Rafe says and is rewarded with a few murmurs of agreement.
“What about you Quint, I know you got eyes for Edie down there.”
Quint rounds on him with a grunt. His previous statement about Abe being away this time last year was about as many words as I've ever heard him utter.
“Come on Quint, come practice your sweet talk on the ladies at the bar,” Rafe says. “Girls can't resist a blacksmith.”
They guys howl with mirth again. Quint is already stamping across the dirt yard, ignoring our friendly jibes.
“Leave him alone,” Abel orders, shifting his huge body in his folding chair. “Quint's okay.”
“What about you, Boss?” Jessop asks as we lumber lazily to our feet. “Coming for a nightcap?”
“Nah, I'm all tuckered out from the tying.”
“That was some fight you won today,” I tell Abe. We'd all been impressed by how Abel was still at the top of his game when it came to roping steer or wild horses.
“You mean 'cos I'm getting as long in the tooth as a water buffalo?” Abel says from under his hat.
“You ain't but a couple years older than me and Rafe,” I say. “And we still got plenty to teach the younger fellas.”
“What's a decade or so between buddies,” Rafe interrupts.
He's got a couple years less than me and Abe under his belt.
“Now you coming down for one more or you turning in like your old gran?”
“Screw you,” Abel laughs, finally returning his hat to his head and hauling his tall frame out of the chair.
“Maybe I'll see you down there. I just got some shit to take care of,” I say.
The guys stride across to the pick up and I head toward the big house. My muscles are tired in the best way, after a long day of battling untamed animals into submission. In the absence of a soft scented woman, there's one thing I love and can only manage to procure for myself when the family are away.
I turn toward the ranch and take the main entrance to the house instead of trekking the long way round back. With the family in town until tomorrow to meet the little princesses for the stampede, I've got the entire place to myself. The domestic staff all off duty now.